Kovalchuk fuels Thrashers past Lightning

Ilya Kovalchuk notched his league-leading 27th tally and added
an assist and Kari Lehtonen set aside 32 shots to power the
Thrashers to a 6-2 rout of the road-weary Lightning in a matchup
between Southeast Division rivals on Tuesday.

"This is a good start," Lehtonen said. "But it doesn't take
away from losing four in a row. We have to build on this and
focus on (Thursday's game against Ottawa)."

Tampa Bay, which entered with a league-worst 3-11-1 road record,
continued to struggle on the highway, losing for the sixth time
in its last seven games away from the St. Pete Times Forum.

"We all have to stick together," Tampa Bay right wing Martin St.
Louis said. "It's easy to pull apart when things go like that.
We have to stay close and focused. There's a lot of games
left."

With Atlanta struggling, interim coach Don Waddell broke up the
superstar combination of Marian Hossa and Kovalchuk from the
club's first line in a quest to find a more even distribution of
offense.

Hossa was teamed with Kozlov and Eric Perrin on Atlanta's first
line, while Kovalchuk was paired with the newly acquired Recchi
and Todd White on another line. The move paid almost immediate
dividends.

"(The new lines) work," Kovalchuk said. "We scored a couple of
goals. Hossa's line got a goal. Teams now have to play two
good lines against us. Before they put their best defenseman
playing against (Hossa and I) and they shut us down. It's
better."

"All the lines contributed offensively for us," Waddell said.
"The key for us was our start. We played a great first period
and I thought we took the game over right off the bat."

Staked to a 1-0 lead, Kovalchuk fed Recchi, who skated from the
left faceoff circle in front of Johan Holmqvist before he was
pulled down by defenseman Shane O'Brien.

But the 39-year old Recchi muscled the puck between the legs of
Holmqvist while he was falling to the ice for his third goal as
a Thrasher to give Atlanta a 2-0 lead at 15:05 of the first
period.

"I have no idea (how I scored)," Recchi said. "I kind of pulled
it and it hit him in the pads and went in."

Hossa's line found the net about two minutes later when Kozlov
poked in a loose puck on a rebound from Hossa's shot from in
front of the net to pad the lead.

"They played a lot last year together and it didn't look like
they lost a beat there," Waddell said. "That line was very good
tonight and created offensive chances."

A frustrated Holmqvist threw his blocker in disgust after the
goal and argued with the officials that a whistle should have
been blown for a frozen puck.

"I was really upset because I thought it was the wrong call,"
Holmqvist said. "It was a big momentum shift in the game.
They're up 2-0 there and it's a whole different story.
Obviously, it was not a good thing that we were down 3-0."

Backup Marc Denis replaced Holmqvist to start the second period
after the 29-year old stopped six of nine shots in the first
period.

By then, the Lightning were well on their way to their third
straight loss.

"It was a pretty rough first period," Tampa Bay coach John
Tortorella said. "We need to keep on trying. We need to keep
on believing. We just have to find away to grind through this."

Denis quickly allowing a goal to Chris Thorburn five minutes
into the second period to give Atlanta a four-goal lead before
Kovalchuk beat him with a wrister from the high slot on a
breakaway with 10:32 remaining in the third.

"I was excited when I scored," Kovalchuk said. "You can go 20
breakaways with zero goals."